Luton miss out on play-offs despite injury time winner at Bolton

Luton Town will not take part in the play-offs and remain in League 1 despite an injury time goal to win 3-2 away at Bolton Wanderers.

Jack Wilshere’s side had fallen behind at the Toughsheet Community Stadium, but came back late on to see Shayden Morris score an injury time goal to take the points in Lancashire.

At around the same time, however, Stevenage bundled in a 92nd minute winner at home to Wigan Athletic, with the late goal seeing the Hertfordshire club get the win they needed to confirm Luton could not surpass their points total.

That result along with those elsewhere means that Luton’s season is now definitively over, with Wilshere’s side missing out on a place in the play-offs by one point despite a run of 9 wins in their last 12 league games.

An eventful start to the game saw Luton come close when Emilio Lawrence hit the post before the visitors opened the scoring after 15 minutes. Max Conway’s foul on Isaiah Jones saw Luton given a penalty, and Jordan Clark scored the penalty.

Jordi Osei-Tutu would bring Bolton back on level terms 5 minutes later, as he scored from Amario Cozier-Duberry’s corner.

Kasey Palmer saw a header strike the crossbar in the final minutes of the first half, before Bolton then took the lead in first half stoppage time. Ruben Rodrigues released Ibrahim Cissoko, who in turn beat Josh Keeley to put Wanderers ahead at half-time.

Mads Andersen would strike the post in the time between the goal and the break, making it 3 times that Luton struck the woodwork during the first half.

An extraordinary sequence then saw Bolton squander three opportunities in quick succession for a third just before the hour, as Cozier-Duberry was denied by a double save from Keeley before Mason Burstow beat the keeper only to strike the post.

That proved to be a big moment as just after the hour, Luton grabbed an equaliser. Hakeem Odoffin met Liam Walsh’s corner and duly got the telling touch to beat Bolton keeper Jack Bonham.

Keeley would deny Cozier-Duberry from putting the home side back in front as a frantic game ticked down towards its end.

Luton then thought for one moment that they had a goal to put them into the play-off spots, as Morris bundled in after good set up work by Gideon Kodua and Ali Al-Hamadi.

Just before that goal, however, Stevenage had themselves found the breakthrough they needed against Wigan, meaning the most important goal for Luton now needed to come from the Latics in Hertfordshire.

While they waited for any news from there, Luton contrived to miss a penalty that would’ve truly put their result to bed. Bonham fouled Al-Hamadi in the box, but the home keeper pulled off the save to thwart Nahki Wells.

Nonetheless, Luton had done their part to take the win at Bolton. Unfortunately for them, Stevenage’s performance elsewhere confirmed that Luton’s comeback to try and make the play-offs had fallen short and that they’ll now have to go again next season.